Bespoke Reactor System Installed For Chemical Engineering Research

Asynt has supplied and installed a ReactoMate laboratory reactor system within the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. Comprising of bespoke glass reactor vessel, ReactoMate Datum support stand and DrySyn heating block system, the reactor setup will help further research into the fluid dynamics of fine particulate materials.

Based within the Chemical Engineering department at Imperial College London (UK), the Matar Fluid Group, led by Professor Omar K Matar, focuses on interfacial fluid mechanics with an emphasis on modelling, simulation, and experimental data collection. A key requirement for the custom ReactoMate system involved the ability to track and image the particles present within solution. For this reason, the use of an oil heating jacket, which is commonly used for the thermoregulation of reactor vessels at this scale, was not possible due to the distortion created by the oil layer.

Asynt developed an application-optimised heating system using a special reactor vessel and custom DrySyn aluminium heating block. The low-profile of the DrySyn block maintains visibility into the vessel throughout the reaction period and the use of a hotplate stirrer mounted upon an Asynt lab-jack enables quick removal of the heating source when required. Also included within the ReactoMate setup was a custom-made glass lid with specific ports designed to accommodate a PTFE stirring shaft, thermocouple for accurate temperature control of the solution, CondenSyn waterless condenser, and other probes necessary for data capture.


For further information on the design and manufacture of the reactor system, please visit asyntise.com